A Drink For You
by GuessWho25
Summary: AU. A birthday story for my favorite female shinigami. A submition to the DA IchiRuki-Club Rukia's birthday contest.


Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

-kkkk-

It was late. He should be at home sleeping, but he wasn't.

Kurosaki Ichigo walked the dark streets of Karakura Town late that night. It had been a busy night at the hospital and he was tired as hell. The bus ride home hadn't helped either.

Stupid yapping girls who wouldn't shut up, stupid old drunk man who kept rambling about who the hell knows what, and stupid woman who kept trying to feel up on him. But he supposed it was partially his fault as well. He could have driven his car to work but since he was to lazy to go put gas in his car he was stuck taking that bus. He really didn't mind it though; well normally he didn't mind it. Usually it was a quiet ride since he usually took it when it wasn't so busy. But there were days like today where there were annoying people on for the ride.

Damn, just thinking about it made his head hurt.

It hadn't help that lately he hadn't been getting much sleep. He'd been called in several times for the passed week at random times for emergency surgery. It seemed like it was surgery after surgery. What is national get-hurt-in-some-way-that-you'll-need-surgery week or something because it seriously seemed like that? And if it was, why didn't he get the memo? He would have made sure to put to use his vacation days, heaven knew he had so many of them. But knowing him, he wouldn't do that. He loved his job too much. He loved being able to take care of people, being able to help them, and being able to in some sense protect their lives from death. He was damn good at his job and he wouldn't trade it for the world.

Although there were days where he wished time would stop for just a moment and let him breathe just a little. But it all came with a day's work he supposed.

He stretched his arms above his body as he turned the corner at a street.

It would have helped if he wasn't a surgeon short. Seriously, did she get the memo about national get-hurt-in-some-way-that-you'll-need-surgery week and take off so she wouldn't endure it? No, she wouldn't do that. Sure she was a pain in the ass and hated the jobs at time but she loved her job more than she hated it. Of course he would never admit it but he admired her passion for her job.

He continued walking down a street until he came up to the town park. It'd been years since he had come to that park. He walked into the park with nothing but the light of near by lampposts to illuminate his way.

Then why had she requested to take the entire week off?

He stopped walking in front of the jungle gym when something caught his eye.

Well speak of the devil.

There, under the light of the moon, sat the woman that had been on his mind the entire week of her absence. She sat on a swing, lightly pushing her body with her feet, her hands gripping the chain that supported the swing. She was lost in thought otherwise she would have heard him walk up to the swing beside her and wouldn't have slightly jumped when he spoke.

"Is this seat taken?"

Her face spun so fast that he thought her head would come off. "Ichigo?" Her eyes widen in surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question." He smirked at her. "So, is this seat taken?" He pointed to the empty swing beside her.

"What?" It took her a while to get over her initial surprise of seeing him there in the late hours of the night. "Oh, no. You can sit."

The swing was too low for comfort and the seat to small for his bottom. It wasn't the most comfortable seat in the world, but he's sat in worse. When he became as comfortable as possible in the too low and too small swing, he rocked his body using his feet, matching the pace his partner was going at.

"What brings you here?" She broke the silence.

"I just got off not to long ago."

She looked at him. "But your apartment is still another 20 minutes walk away."

He scratched the back of his neck. "Well you see . . ." he started nervously.

"Let me guess, you got too lazy to drive so you took the bus right?" She smirked.

"If you knew then why'd you asked?" He tried to look mad but she could tell he was bluffing. After all, she knew him long enough to know how his brain worked.

She giggled a little. "But your stop is passed this park."

"Yeah, well the people on the bus were really annoying and instead of causing some trouble and send them to the hospital only to be called in for emergency surgery on the damage I made, I decided it would be smarter to just walked home. Besides," He looked up at the sky where a large full moon illuminated the dark sky. "It's a nice night to take a walk don't you think?"

She turned her gaze up to the moon. "Yeah."

They both looked up to the moon, nothing in particular in the minds yet lost in thought.

"What about you?" The orange-haired man broke the silence that had fallen upon them.

"What about me?"

"What is the 'great,'" he added a sarcastic emphasis on the word great, "Rukia Kuchiki doing out at this time of night?" He looked down at her, "And in an evening gown nonetheless."

That's right, she hadn't changed after the party her brother had thrown for her. In fact, she hadn't even gone home yet. She was still wearing her midnight blue gown, her hair was still up in a nice bun, and she was still wearing her gray pea coat to keep her save from the chilled night. She had long taken of her shoes so she wouldn't ruin them in the sand and dirt.

"That's none of your business." She turned her face away from him in annoyance,

He scowled. "Don't be like that Rukia, I told you my story so now's your turn."

"And I said I don't want too." Se huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Fine." He stood up from his uncomfortable seat and dusted himself down.

She looked at him, surprised at his lack of response. "You're letting me off just like that?"

He was still staring at the sky when he answered her. "You once told me that you wouldn't force me to share anything with you that I didn't feel like sharing," he looked at her again, "so I won't force you either. You'll tell me when you want."

She wondered whether if it was because of the light of the moon, or maybe she was just going crazy, but he looked different – a good different at that – the way he said that.

She smiled and shook her head. "You're such an idiot you know that."

"But I'm your idiot." He smirked.

It was a joke between them. They weren't really together in any sense of the word. They just deeply cared for each other, or so that's what they kept telling themselves. But they knew that there was something else there, they were just too afraid to reach out and grab it, too afraid of rejection, of getting hurt.

Her smile was sad this time. She bit her bottom lip, debating something on her mind. "Nii-sama," she started, looking down as her small white feet worked the sand around as her hands gripped the chain again. "Nii-sama wants me to get married."

He didn't say anything, knowing that is he did then she may stop. So instead he just took his seat once again.

"He wants to include my spouse and future children in his will." Her grip on the chain of the swing tightened. "He said that he'd even picked out someone for me. I know he's just worried about me, that I won't find someone, but I don't want to get married without love. Is that wrong of me?" She asked quietly.

He wasn't sure whether he was meant to hear the last part, but he answered her anyway. "No."

She looked at him, a little surprised that he heard her.

Ichigo looked ahead, nothing in particular in his line of sight. "Before my dad married my mom, he was told that he would be disowned. That if he, someone of wealth, was to marry my mother, someone poor, then he would renounce his family and that he would be denied an inheritance. But my dad didn't care. He loved mom too much to care about money. So he left without of second thought. He changed his name and with the medical degree he already had he was able to get a good job and start a career. When he had enough, he proposed to my mom." He paused for a second. "When I was younger, my dad would tell me that money wasn't everything. As long as you have the people you love then everything would turn out alright." He rubbed the back of his neck, "I don't know how, but I hope that helps."

She closed her eyes and smiled. "Yeah, it does."

"Good, now enough of this serious mood." He stood up and extended his arm towards her. "Let's get out of here."

She rolled her eyes at him. "And where do you expect us to go at this late hour?"

"Tomorrow's your birthday right?"

"Yeah."

"Let me buy you a drink to celebrate. There's a bar not to far from here."

She looked at his extended hand and then at him. She didn't know why, but whenever she was with him everything, all her problems, all her worries, went away. As she took his hand, she decided that she would tell her brother that he didn't need to worry about her, that she could take care of herself. When Ichigo pulled her up from her seat, she realized that even though she could care of herself she wasn't really alone. She would also make sure to mention that to her brother.

They walked side by side. Ichigo had one hand in his pocket as the other held his brief case behind his back. Rukia had given up on wearing her heels so she walked bare foot.

"Aren't you gonna ask me why I was gone for a whole week?" The raven haired woman asked after a few minutes of silence.

"I told you, I'm not gonna make you tell me something you don't want to tell me."

After another pause, the woman spoke again. "Nii-sama wanted me home for the week. To celebrate my birthday he says." She sighed and continued. "We were never close, but it's nice to spend time with him. Today he threw me a party, since we wouldn't be able to be together for my actually birth date, that would explain my clothes." She lifted her arms a little to emphasize her wardrobe. "I got home a few hours ago, but I never really made it home. I wondered around until I stopped at the park and just sat there for who know how long."

"Have you ever had a Dudi Drop?" The taller man asked his petite partner, changing the subject after a short silence.

"A what?" she gave him a confused look.

He smiled at her confusion. "A Dudi Drop. You take a strawberry and cut out the center, you fill it with Tequila Rose® (Strawberry Cream Liqueur), top it off with whipped cream and then just drop it in your mouth."

"Can't say I have." She looked at his curiously. "I didn't know you were into those types of drinks though."

"I'm not, I prefer a whiskey or a beer, but my friend Tatsuki says it's pretty good, not that I would ever try it." He defended himself. After all, guys don't drink fruity stuff like that.

She laughed at his reaction. "I guess I'll give it a shot then."

In the distance, a chime of a clock tower could be heard. The couple stopped and Ichigo looked at his watch. "It's midnight already."

"I suppose it is."

"Rukia."

The raven haired woman turned at the sound of her name. "Yea-" A pair of lips stopped her from finishing her sentence.

At first she was stunned, but as she felt the warmth of his body and the safety of his arms are they encircled her, she couldn't help but kiss him back.

Ichigo was first to pull back. "Happy Birthday." The orange-haired man whispered, a little out of breath.

She blushed and nodded.

"Well them," He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him as he continued on their way to their destination. "Let's go get you that Dudi Drop."

"Ah" She intertwined her hand with his as they continued to walk.

She smiled. It looked like she would be tasting strawberries that night.

-kkkk-

Food for Thought:

Some say the glass is half full; some say the glass is half empty. I say "Are you gonna drink that?"

P.S. Yes, there was a pun intended at the end.


End file.
